


The Book of Jin-Gitaxias

by The_Foxwolf



Category: Magic: The Gathering, New Phyrexia - Fandom, Phyrexia - Fandom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 06:57:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8568673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Foxwolf/pseuds/The_Foxwolf
Summary: This is the collection of the teachings of the Praetor Jin-Gitaxias. Herein you will find the Core Auger's musings, ponderings, and teachings.
Come. Let me show you the Glory of Phyrexia. Come and be Compleat.





	

The Book of Jin- Gitaxias  
Chapter 1

1) Perfection is an ideal. By its very definition, an object that is ideal is to be without flaws, ultimately efficient at its purpose, and endlessly functional. This definition, however accurate, is insufficient to encompass the totality of all that is defined by the notion of the word “perfect”.   
2) In reference to faith, perfection cannot be achieved except by the very concept of perfection as a whole. No individual can possibly attain the status of being “perfectly faithful”.   
3) For another example, perfection regarding work is also unattainable. The ideal of a perfect work would be ultimate efficiency without waste of any kind. Not only is attaining such an ideal mathematically impossible, it is also unreasonable to assume that an equivalent of its attainable virtue can be obtained.   
4) Even if at this very moment, the foundries were to reach their maximized efficiency as far as current processes and technologies go, we cannot ever claim to say that we have attained “perfect efficiency”.   
5) Why can we never claim to say that we have attained perfect efficiency? Because processes and technologies are ever improving. More advanced technology is being created at every instant. Processes are being refined by thinker at all times of the day. To say that perfect efficiency has been obtained is impossible.   
6) To say that we have reached an equivalent of such an ideal is impossible because all is improving all the time. A more efficient fuel source could be found. More efficient workers more suited to the task. Better geometric access ways and pathways throughout the foundries can be found that would shave milliseconds off of inefficiency.  
7) With that knowledge in mind, we must address all things, thoughts and actions alike, with the idea that perfection cannot be an attainable destination. It is, by its very nature, nothing more than an ideal.   
8) But what is an ideal and function does it serve to us if it is not obtainable? One would assume that the word “goal” would be one way to describe an ideal but the term is inaccurate. A goal is a destination, and as we have already stated, perfection is not a destination but an ideal. Failure to meet a goal has consequences both physical and mental. Thoughts of failure are detrimental to all.  
9) Instead, the word “inspiration” would be more appropriate.   
10) At no point in time should one be able to search one’s mind for an image of what perfection might be.   
11) Should such a mental image arise, it is already flawed, because we were capable of envisioning it.  
12) Since none of us are perfect, our perception is imperfect. As such, if we manage to conjure an image to our minds of what we consider perfection to be, it is through imperfect perception that such an image is obtained.   
13) This, in turn, makes our mental image of perfection imperfect and thus not a true image of what perfection is. This is why perfection is an ideal.   
14) Ideal, by the term, is an idea. Ideas cannot be conceptualized. All that can be done is to describe the contents of the idea, but the idea itself can never be given form. Upon doing so, it would immediately cease to be an idea and instead have form. To have form implies that we are aware that it has form. To be aware of it, we must use our imperfect perception. As such, any idea that becomes form is immediately lessened and imperfect.   
15) It is impossible to imagine the concept of perfection.   
16) How is it then that we are meant to strive towards perfection? That is, why the word “inspiration” is the most appropriate to determine what relationship we all have to the word “perfection”.   
17) How then, are we to strive towards the ideal of perfection without it being a goal or a destination? We do it in the action of the striving.   
18) We cannot achieve perfection, but that does not mean it is not worth striving toward.   
19) How does one strive toward the perfect? By being the best one can be. By producing the best one can.   
20) By no means is the best one can an admission of one’s perfection. But one is not capable of doing, producing, or being, anything more than their best.   
21) “Best” is defined as maximally efficient as possible. Even a powerful hydraulic piston, at its peak performance, cannot bear a load greater than its best capacity. This concept applies to all people.   
22) The most we can accomplish is the best that we can be and produce.  
23) By no means is “best” perfect. One person’s best mathematics may be half as good as another’s best. Or twice as good.   
24) But by virtue of that comparative and personal nature of the “best”, one’s best will never be perfect. But it is the closest we can all achieve with our imperfect selves.  
25) Only by being the best we can be, producing the best we can offer, by trying with our best efforts, can we begin to hope to have the right to claim that we are approaching perfection.   
26) Suppose then that ones manages to become the “best” one can be. What then? One becomes part of a greater system of all people that helps oil the cogs to create a more perfect existence for all.   
27) But one maximally efficient cog cannot compensate for an entire existence worth of cogs that are not at their best.   
28) This is something that is beyond one’s capacity to change. One can, by nature of one’s maximized efficiency, set an example for others to follow and be evidence that people can in fact be the best they can be. But in now way is one able to make that change of one’s own part.   
29) That is why all people are expect to operate and strive towards being the best they can be.   
30) Imagine a system in which all the gears and cogs are working at “their best”. That system, as beautiful as it sounds, will be the closest a system can become to perfection.   
31) By the nature of our own imperfection, we cannot hope to become any better, either as parts of a whole, or as a whole in itself. But it will, according to our faults and imperfections, be as close to perfect as we are able to achieve. That state is our destination.   
32) And what do we call this state? That state of ever reaching for being one’s best? Progress.  
33) Not progress in the sense of the word that implies an approach to completion of meeting of a goal. Progress in the sense of the word of advancement in a journey.  
34) For, make no mistake, perfection is not destination. But the attempt to reach it is a journey.   
35) Say for example, that perfection is the sun and progress is the foot bound journey towards it. In no case will one ever come closer to the sun.   
36) But that chasing of the sun, the following of the sunrise, is in itself an effort of merit.   
37) What more satisfaction to one’s own life can be had other than the attempt to live a life worthy of merit?


End file.
